A courageous Venezuelan woman in Ottawa publicly called out a crowd of self-righteous protesters who took to the streets to defend Nicolás Maduro and condemn President Trump, exposing a truth many on the left refuse to accept: real Venezuelans know what living under Maduro looks like. The demonstration outside the U.S. Embassy on January 4 drew chants of “hands off Venezuela,” but it was the Venezuelan voices among the counter-protesters that cut through the noise with firsthand testimony about life under a brutal regime.
Those chanting “down with Donald Trump” and waving signs were not representing the Venezuelan victims of socialism, they were rehearsing the old left-wing script that romanticizes dictators and demonizes anyone who would restore order and liberty. Videos and coverage from the scene show a crowd more interested in ideology and slogans than in the suffering Venezuelans have endured for years, a disturbing reminder that many protesters applaud regimes that enslave their own people.
Venezuelan exiles like Diana Rizo—who fled Maduro’s Venezuela—directly challenged the protesters, asking why people who never lived under socialism would defend Maduro’s crimes while ignoring the blood and misery he has caused. Her plea that the world listen to Venezuelans who actually lived through the collapse of their country laid bare the moral bankruptcy of leftist solidarity with tyrants.
Meanwhile, the internet has been flooded with manipulated footage and disinformation about the dramatic U.S. operation that led to Maduro’s capture, further muddying the waters and giving cover to those who would cheer tyrants. Fact-checkers and reporters have documented a wave of AI-generated and recycled clips being passed off as genuine, which only underscores how easily the left’s narrative can be built on lies and recycled propaganda.
Conservatives should welcome the voices of Venezuelan refugees who understand that freedom and order beat the chaotic promises of socialism every time, and we should call out with equal vigor the limp moralizing of Western elites who side with dictators out of spite for America. This isn’t foreign policy theatre; it is the fate of millions who endured starvation, lawlessness, and political terror while tuneless activists clapped for the wrong team.
If the United States and its allies are serious about helping Venezuelans rebuild a free country, they will listen to those who fled Maduro’s terror and reject the performative left-wing chorus that defends oppression in the name of ideology. The Ottawa scene was a microcosm of a much larger battle for truth and justice: hardworking people who fled tyranny versus armchair radicals who romanticize it from a safe distance.
Patriots in America and Canada must stand with the Venezuelan people demanding freedom, not with the sympathetic whispers that shield dictators. Let this brave woman’s words remind us that real solidarity means listening to survivors, not applauding slogans—because liberty won’t be preserved by cheering for tyrants, it will be won by supporting those who suffered under them and giving them a real chance at a free future.
